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sister desperate no internet access at home- ideas?
usignuolo
Posts: 1,923 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
About three months ago my sister lost internet access at home - wifi and cabled (via adsl).Went very slow for a few days then stopped altogether. Her ISP PlusNet could not resolve it their end and sent BT round who replaced all cable into house and junction box. Still no luck. She then had router replaced and cables still no luck. Neighbours each side say have no problems.
Needs it for work (self employed). So she bought an ipad tablet with 3G wifi. That worked on holiday in Spain last week, worked in my house yesterday. Won't work in hers. Simply will not connect in her house. PlusNet and BT have washed their hands, say problem cannot be solved. Thing is it worked fine for last two years until 26 March 2013. She did nothing before or after that date to change things.
It briefly worked in May when we updated AVG virus protection sw and settings as there was a known bug with a new release of that but only for a couple of days then stopped again. Now It looks like it must be something out of ordinary blocking it as 3G won't work on ipad in her house either. Anyone got any ideas? Clutching at straws here. She needs it for her work and is desperate.
Needs it for work (self employed). So she bought an ipad tablet with 3G wifi. That worked on holiday in Spain last week, worked in my house yesterday. Won't work in hers. Simply will not connect in her house. PlusNet and BT have washed their hands, say problem cannot be solved. Thing is it worked fine for last two years until 26 March 2013. She did nothing before or after that date to change things.
It briefly worked in May when we updated AVG virus protection sw and settings as there was a known bug with a new release of that but only for a couple of days then stopped again. Now It looks like it must be something out of ordinary blocking it as 3G won't work on ipad in her house either. Anyone got any ideas? Clutching at straws here. She needs it for her work and is desperate.
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Comments
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Does she have mobile network coverage at her place? Try a different network SIM?0
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Does she have business broadband or residential broadband?
Business broadband usually comes with technical support for Pc problems as well depending on the ISP
Normally if Plusnet had sent an engineer and the engineer didn't charge the customer then the fault would have been external to the property. It certainly sounds that way otherwise the ISP wouldn't have paid to have the cables swapped or any work completed.
How far is the house from the telephone exchange in the area?
I've seen some cases where people live far out in the countryside and the broadband connection is poor but stable and use able. When it becomes faulty and engineers attend if they find faulty cables they will swap them to spare ones in the same underground or overhead cabling.
The problem happens when no spares are available. It involves physically laying down new cables and that can involve digging roads and planning permission leading into tens of thousands.
In these cases ISP's and BT can't justify the cost of the work needed and will allow people out of contact.
If it's out of the town a little the house it will probably only have a GPRS connection available for the iPad. 3G speeds are usually only available in reasonable populated areas.
thickness of walls in the house may play a part as well.All your base are belong to us.0 -
It works on her ipad outside of the house(3g) so why not connect outside the house and then watch the connection for when it goes out?
Try from back of house and front and then maybe she can narrow it down to something in her house which is interfering with signals????
I have an application on my laptop called inSSIDer which shows connections that are picked up via my laptop's wifi and their strengths(doesn't matter if they will connect, it is just an indicator of what signals it can see).
It was free from metageek.net
There was also another application on that site which could help find the strength of a signal in different parts of a building.
It might help her to narrow down parts of the house where there is still a signal or even what is blocking her existing one.0 -
Hi usignuolo,
Really sorry to hear that, if you could post a ticket ID relating to the fault in this thread I'll be able to look into it and see what's going on and also hopefully get things moving again for her?
Cheers,
Matt Taylor
Customer Support“Official Company Representative
I am the official company representative of Plusnet. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"0 -
I tether from my phone...works brilliantly0
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If the 3g signal is Ok outdoors, get an *active* usb extension cable (especially if the run is over 5m) and put the dongle in the corner of an upstairs window. An active cable will keep the signal in sync, cheap passive ones can experience drop out.0
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Search on Original poster's previous posts - subject previously discussed
Replies suggested the real problem is internal to the house/the computer itself.
New users not allowed to post links to the post So I can't - sorry
Reference to this thread has also been put by someone on the plusnet feedback sub-forum0 -
you have to get the wired connection working first, then worry about wifi, as they are two different problems. Only once the wired connection works, will the associated wifi one perhapse work
inSSiser will only detect pure wifi signals, but a spectrum analyzer is needed to analyse the airwaves to see if anything is blocking the wifi frequency.
Around 2.45G are burglar alarms, microwave door sensors, microwave ovens, microwave tv transmitters, and some cordless mice/keyboards etc. If the above are on the wifi frequency, they can blot out the whole band and inSSider will not detect them.
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Is fibre an option?
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my friend whom had a poor connection has now cancelled her phone line. She now leeches off her neighbour and is now 10+ times faster than before as they are on fibre. She also bought an yagi ariel and alfa usb 1W wifi to do it to, plus she pays the neighbour £10 a month and his bill is £16.
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another way might be to get a second line installed (often done for free) and then make this line work. When all is working, then terminate the service of the first line - I did this and you will loose the phone number of the first line.0 -
go to post 5 and follow up with PlusNet again...Friendly greeting!0
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Hi,
is she using an AV sender in house, it can block signal, so change the channel on it.0
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